June 11, 2008 -- The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) has launched a web mapping application designed to help patient advocates and health clinic personnel to identify and locate the optimal health clinic for their clients within the bi-state Greater Kansas City region. Applied Geographics Inc. (AppGeo®) developed the application in collaboration with MARC’s GIS and Regional Health Care Initiative staff as well as community stakeholders.

“This website is a result of the bi-state program known as the Regional Health Care Initiative that we launched in 2007 to improve access to health care for the underserved population in Greater Kansas City,” said Brian Parr, GIS Manager for MARC. “The site is the result of the work of several departments at MARC, including Public Affairs and Research Services, and the support of the region’s safety net clinics.”

The application makes it easy for anyone (staff or patient) to search for and locate health clinics within a user-defined distance from a reference location (e.g., home address, town, or zip code) or to search by clinic name. Clinic characteristics - such as types of insurance coverage accepted, hours of operation, and types of services provided – can be used to further refine the location-based search to find clinics that match patient needs. Once a clinic or list of clinics is identified, the user can view the clinic(s) on a map, view information about a selected clinic and, with two mouse clicks, generate driving directions to it.

“Simplicity and ease of use were our customer’s priorities throughout the design and creation of the website,” said Sara Kustron, AppGeo Project Manager. “We took advantage of both ESRI’s ArcGIS Server and Google Maps technology to build a custom solution that met MARC’s needs, and we look forward to enhancing the application by integrating translated Spanish content and potentially adding alternative transportation routing features such as bus routes.”

Although the primary audience is patient advocates and clinic personnel charged with making referrals and assisting patients, anyone can use the publicly accessible site (
http://www.kchealthresource.org/). The Regional Health Care Initiative is being funded by a number of local foundations which can be found at the Initiative Web site (
http://www.marc.org/healthinitiative/).

AppGeo developed the application using ASP.NET 3.5, with ArcGIS Server as the data hosting environment and using the Google Maps API as the mapping interface. Embedded resource files will allow for Spanish language support at Version 2.
About MARC (Mid-America Regional Council) MARC is the association of city and county governments as well as the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the bi-state Kansas City region, and it represents the interests of nine counties and 120 cities in Missouri and Kansas.
About Applied Geographics, Inc. Applied Geographics, Inc. (AppGeo,
www.appgeo.com) has been providing high quality GIS services and innovative solutions to government and private sector clients since 1991. AppGeo empowers its customers to put GIS to work through the intelligent use of geographic data and applications that improve work flows and business processes. AppGeo provides a full range of GIS consulting services: GIS strategic and implementation planning, data development, custom applications, training, cartography, implementation assistance and technical support. AppGeo services are available through a variety of state blanket contracts and nationwide through its GSA IT Schedule 70.

Applied Geographics and Empowering People with Spatial Solutions and AppGeo are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Applied Geographics, Inc. in the United States. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.